2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: Class Warfare [View all]malthaussen
(17,175 posts)The playing field can be more level than it is, but there is no way to ensure that all players can start from an equal place. How would one account for genetic differences, after all? You're a boxer, you know that 100-lb contestants do not engage against those weighing 200 lbs, even though the rules of the ring establish a "level playing field." (Incidentally, I hate all such analogies, but I'll indulge it for the nonce)
To be perfectly frank, whenever I hear anyone -- even Mr Sanders -- maunder on about the rich paying their "fair share" of taxes, I want to barf. I don't want the rich to pay a "fair share," I want them to pay a bloody horking great unfair share. If a billionaire pays 90% in taxes, he still has more money than I will ever see in my lifetime. Excuse me if I don't cry real tears because he has to part with an "unfair" share of the pelf, which has almost certainly been acquired on the backs of my class peers and by the most "unfair" means possible. I understand the political need -- one is risking political suicide by even breathing the words "tax increase," which is possibly one reason why the supporters of Mr Sanders tend to be so disingenuous about it. But certain cliches -- "hard-working Americans" is another. So what about the Americans who don't work hard? (All of Congress, for starters) It's a thing I have always found inexplicable: if everyone works their asses off, why are there so many assholes around? "Hard-working Americans" gets you 60-hour weeks, no vacations, and authorization to sneer at European countries where the work week is more like 36 hours. I guess they don't work very hard, then.
Well, pardon the rant. We need to seriously re-work our understanding of class warfare and class identity in America (the supposedly classless society). Even Mr Sanders does not go far enough in this direction, but at least he is willing to take baby steps.
-- Mal